[Jensson]

> They also require 3k watch hours in the past year so they expect you to grind for at least a year to "prove" you are worth monetizing.

No, if you get 3k watch hours on a video you are good to go, you don't have to wait a year. I've seen plenty of channels get monetized within weeks since they already had an audience.

[I_Am_Nous]

I remember when Game Grumps made "The Grumps" channel and before they even uploaded a single video to it, they were already at Diamond(I believe) subscriber count. I don't remember if they were immediately monetized or not, though.